Chapter 3- You Don't Look So Good, Sparklepants
Ael had never wanted to be an X-Man, and he'd really only done the basic self-defense stuff, so this was an entirely new experience for him — and not one that he had ever wanted to have in the first place.
He could still taste the bitterness of adrenaline that really hadn't stopped since the crash, and it didn't seem like it was going to fade even after he and his brother and dad had been dragged out to … wherever this was and separated.
The soldiers had dragged Noh off somewhere, though Ael could still at least see Sying, who was trying to stay as calm as possible so as not to freak Ael out any further. Which Ael appreciated somewhere in the back of his mind, though he was really more focused on the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere and tied up.
He was honestly mad about it, too, because he felt like these guys were treating him and his family like something less-than, not speaking to them, dragging them around, leaving them on the floor tied to a hook in the wall. The whole thing felt dehumanizing and frustrating, and he didn't know how to react to it other than anger and humiliation that made his cheeks flush purple.
"You know these guys basically just signed their own death warrants, right?" Sying said after a long moment of silence once the soldiers had simply left them there. "As soon as our family figures out where we are, they're dead meat."
Ael nodded, though he was surprised by how dry his mouth was when he tried to answer his big brother. "Yeah, I know that. They're going to come get us. It's just…" He trailed off, suddenly realizing that he didn't have any words that properly described what he was feeling. Was it fear or humiliation or anger or…
"Yeah," Sying said, nodding softly. He didn't really have words for the situation, either.
The two brothers sat in silence for a long moment, and Ael tried to pull against his restraints but couldn't budge them. But the longer the silence went on, the more Ael was aware of the increasingly pale look on his big brother's face.
"You okay?" he asked.
Sying took a deep breath and held it before he nodded almost hesitantly. "I'm alright," he said. "I just… don't like collars."
Ael let out a breath, closed his eyes, and nodded. "I'm not a fan either."
Sying let out a breath of a laugh but didn't say anything further, seeming to focus more on just keeping his composure.
Ael kept half an eye on his brother, the anger and humiliation starting to fade with something to focus on, and simply because he knew from experience that Sying would need something else to think about, he started to mutter under his breath, quiet enough that none of the soldiers listening in would think he'd gone insane when he started reciting some of the scientific names of his favorite fish.
It was a different enough approach that it even had Sying chuckling to himself. And that only encouraged Ael to keep going until the soldiers returned to manhandle them both down the hall, again without speaking to either of the Kree brothers.
Ael was glaring hard at the soldiers, though he didn't have quite the same experience with this kind of thing that Sying did that somehow gave him the presence of mind to hiss out a few threats on what the X-Men were going to do to these guys when they caught up to them.
But those threats came to a grinding halt when the soldiers pulled the boys into what had to be a lab of some kind, though it was nothing like Hank's or even James'. Instead, it was worryingly creepy, and the boys froze outright at the sight of their dad laid out on what was clearly an examination table, bloody and unconscious and still not stitched back together — or healing, as far as they could see.
"What did you do?" Sying all but hissed out, but as usual, no one was paying them any attention other than to wrestle the boys toward equipment in the lab.
That was the first time Ael really started to panic. Until then, he had been upset, yes, but he knew that his family was coming after him. But seeing his dad laid out like that, he started to wonder for the first time what was going to happen between that rescue and now.
The boys did what they could to make life miserable for the soldiers manhandling them, but the soldiers had managed to tie Sying down to a table all the same, and Ael got a firsthand look at the pure panic on his big brother's face.
And then, the lights flickered out.
The guards were on high alert, nervous — especially when, apparently, the reserves and the backup generators failed to kick on. The guys in the lab couldn't raise any of their comrades on their communicators, and the only sound in the room for the longest time was Noh's labored breathing and Sying's quiet hiss that he simply couldn't stop.
And then, out of nowhere, there was gunfire — and then, after the gunfire came a scream and a wet sort of ripping sound that didn't echo at all, instead falling flat in the wide empty hall that spoke to how close it was to them.
When the doors to the lab squeaked — quiet and slow as if someone was slipping in, the guards inside lost their composure entirely and simply started to fire, lighting up the room in rapid fire muzzle flash.
The shots were aimed toward the door, but the fire lit up the room and illustrated two dark silhouettes as they raced through the room, their claws flashing blood and fire as they sliced into one soldier after another — otherwise perfectly silent as they worked their way toward the back of the lab.
Panicked, one of the guards nearest Ael blurted out, "We'll shoot your friend if you don't show your face."
Ael couldn't help that his heart skipped a beat for a second as the soldiers that had been manhandling him toward the equipment earlier instead switched to pointing their weapons his way, but he met Sying's gaze in an instant to see that his big brother was smirking.
Which Ael didn't understand until Sying mouthed out "so dead," and then, he couldn't help but smile.
The orders to drop the weapons echoed the lab as the Turks rattled their guns, angrier and angrier until a low, rumbling growl echoed the lab. Slowly, K stepped out of the shadows, her hands hanging loosely at her sides — though she was splattered in blood as she stalked forward with a smirk. She was moving slow and smooth, unblinking as she came forward; even when they told her to be quiet, she didn't drop the growl in the least.
One of the soldiers took a step forward with a smug sort of look. "Well, look at that," he said, gesturing for some of his men to take up positions on either side of her. "We've been looking for you for a while — to pay you back for all the trouble you've been causing us."
"Are you the one in charge of this crappy little excuse for a program?" K asked, doing her best impression of wide-eyed.
"I run security, lady," the soldier sneered her way.
She grinned outright. "That explains why it's so sub-par, then."
Sying snorted at that, looking at her upside-down from his position laid out on the examination table. "Did you even break a sweat, Grandma?"
K winked at him; then, without turning her head toward the man approaching her, she held up a hand his way. "You really don't want to touch me. That would be the last thing you do."
"You're surrounded," the man in charge said. "And if you make a move we don't like…" He let the sentence hang in the air and gestured to Ael, who still looked like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be joking around with Sying and K, considering the state of things.
"I'm not surrounded," K chuckled.
"Sure," the man said, shaking his head before he motioned for the soldiers to go ahead and grab K to restrain her.
The moment that one of them touched her, a much lower growl echoed the room, and an instant later, Logan darted forward. He moved first to tear apart the soldiers that were even looking toward Ael and Sying and then on to the man that had tried to restrain K, though K simply stood there and let Logan work out some frustrations for a moment. While he was tearing through the guards, K tossed her hair back over her shoulder and strolled over to the boys to cut them loose.
With the guards being dispatched, though, Sying finally let his anxiety show as he sat up and looked toward Noh, visibly shaking. "Dad…" he said quietly.
"I'm on it," K said. "Take care of your brother. I'll patch him up."
"He hasn't healed at all since we got here," Sying said, not bothering to hide the panic in his tone as he ran his hands compulsively over his neck.
"Then I'll patch him up carefully," K promised. "We'll figure out what the story is when we get him out of here."
Sying nodded at that and took a moment to rub his hands over his face to get a hold of himself before he took Ael by the arm. "Come on. Let's get out of here," he said.
"Peter Quill is waiting outside," K told them.
Sying nodded, already building up a plasmoid in one hand. "I'll make us an exit. Faster that way," he said, leaving out the part where he really just needed to blow something up or he'd go insane again.
"I'm all for fast," Ael said with a nod, letting his brother lead the way as they rushed to get out of the lab.
K was quick to get some supplies and start stitching Noh up, humming to him as she did so -—and making a point to numb up the skin where she could. "Come on, Starshine," K said in a drawn-out lilt. "It's time to open your eyes."
It took a long moment before Noh finally did start to come around, and when he saw K, he let out a long breath and closed his eyes again with a breathed out, "Hello."
"There's a lovely sight," K said with a little smile. "You look like hell, Sparkle pants. Your beloved is fuming. Said something about how 'just because we had a good anniversary does not mean you need to pull this crap' or something."
Noh couldn't help but let out a breath of a laugh at that. "I'll apologize," he said softly.
"As well you should," she said before she started wrapping up his wounds tightly. "I'm not going to have you doing something as undignified as forgetting how to breathe any time soon."
"Of course not," he said, leaning back with his eyes closed as she finished what she was doing before he had to ask: "The boys…?"
"The boys are with Peter Quill," she promised. "And he's likely pacing right now. He's been so sensitive lately."
"Old age," Noh said softly.
She hummed her agreement, then gently pulled him upright. "If you can't walk, I can carry you."
Noh nodded, still looking rather pale. "I'm quite exhausted," he admitted, his eyes drifting shut for a moment.
"Piggyback ride, then," she said with a little smile.
Noh let out a small laugh but didn't fight her as she rearranged herself under him so she could carry him, since he was fighting hard to stay awake anyway.
K was careful as she made her way out — letting Logan know she was leaving along the way. She was still quick but nowhere near as quick as she usually was as she headed for Quill's ship. She was only halfway there before Logan caught up and offered to take over, frowning at the way K had Noh draped over her.
"He's been cut open; this is the best way I can think of to keep from popping his stitches open," K explained, and at that, Logan fell back a step and covered the two of them as they finished their trek.
"We need to get him to Ty and Hank," Logan said to Quill once they were in the ship — though he was sure to help K get Noh settled in where he could lay down.
"Got it," Peter said with a nod, not waiting to take off before the others were seated.
The boys made their way over to where Logan and K were with Noh, more or less having the opposite reactions now that they were out of danger. Sying was just starting to let the panic hit him after squashing it down for so long, but Ael was clearly better for being out of the situation and rushed over to K.
"Is he going to be okay?" he asked, the adrenaline crash clearly showing in the set of his shoulders.
"We'll find out once the docs get a look at 'im," Logan said as he and K cleaned up the injuries as best they could.
Ael frowned but nodded at that, sitting down close by to watch them work. "They didn't really say anything to us," he said. "I don't know … what they were doing."
"I heard them say something about healers, but…" Sying trailed off as he rubbed his hands over his face and took a shuddering breath. "At least, I think they were talking about healing…"
K and Logan shared a look before K stepped back from Noh and made her way over to Sying. "Why don't you settle in and grab a bite to eat?"
Sying nodded slowly but didn't actually move to do that, instead latching onto K in a hug as he worked to get a hold of himself. "I really hate collars," he muttered to her, just low enough that even with a bunch of super hearing people, she was the only one that heard it.
"We all do, sweetheart," she replied quietly, then snuggled him into a bear hug.
The two of them stayed that way until Sying felt like he had a handle on it and then cleared his throat as he sat up straighter. "Thanks," he whispered out.
K kissed his temple, but by that time, they were making the approach to Westchester, since Peter had taken the liberty of going out of the atmosphere to shorten the trip up a bit. By the time they landed, Tyler was waiting in the hangar, ready to scoop Noh up and carry him out. Like it or not.
And of course, Jubilee and Krissy were there too, with Jubilee nearly pacing in worry and sure to rush over to Ael to make sure he was okay — since first kidnappings were never fun and she knew it.
That was really the first time that Ael finally felt like it was over. Once he had his arms around his mother in a hug, he halfway melted into her, the weight of all of it crashing around him while Krissy was just beyond them showering Sying with kisses to make sure he was okay.
"Is Ariel okay?" Sying asked as soon as Krissy let him breathe for half a second.
Krissy let out a breath. "She's pretty shaken up, but she's getting totally spoiled for attention. Papa has her right now, and Phillip won't let my mom breathe without him, so they're alright."
Sying let his shoulders drop to show his relief and then pulled Krissy into a long hug. "Good," he said softly, though Krissy could feel him shaking and knew whatever had happened, it had been bad. He'd likely end up sleeping on the floor again, the way he always seemed to do when he couldn't find safety in his dreams.
But for as relieved as they were to see the rest of their family, both boys were still worried about Noh, and the reunion moved quickly to the medical wing, where Tyler was sitting with Noh and doing his thing, finally getting the healing going on their dad.
It was always hard for him to heal healers, even if it was nanites he was fighting and not natural healing powers, and Tyler leaned back when he was through, looking a lot like Noh — exhausted and worn out.
"So, what's the deal?" Ael asked almost hesitantly when it was clear Tyler was done. "How come he's not healing?"
"Honestly, I've done what I can," Tyler told him. "But whatever's going on isn't anything I can fix." He looked up at the little family and shook his head. "They just … looked. Nothing was missing that I could see. I can't find a reason for him not to be healing."
Ael frowned at that. "That doesn't… make sense."
Hank let out a little huff when he overheard the confusion. "It makes perfect sense, young man. Simply put, he's aging. And as far as I can tell through my equipment, his nanotech is working overtime to make sure that he doesn't kill himself in the meantime." He looked over his half moon glasses at Tyler. "One must not always look for some mystical malady, my boy."
"So he's just…" Ael looked between Hank and Tyler with a frown. "He's just old. That's… that's not terrible."
"Says you," Jubilee said, looking at him as if he was cracked.
"He's not that old," Krissy said with her nose scrunched up. "He's my mom's age, isn't he?"
"Yes, well." Hank said as he finally got to his feet to make his way over. "As spry as your mother can be, Noh ages a bit quicker than she does."
Krissy frowned at that as Sying draped an arm around her shoulders. "So… what do we do?" he asked. "If Dad's nanites are keeping him alive but not… not healing…. Not big stuff anyway… right?"
"He could retire," Hank replied. "Or he could find a way to upgrade his nanites."
"I'll talk to Uncle James," Sying said quickly, latching onto that possibility fast before he zipped off to go do just that, leaving Krissy shaking her head.
When Sying did find James, he almost wasn't surprised to find that he was out with Kari on the lawn, the two of them stretched out in the sun and sharing a lazy afternoon talking and relaxing now that they were back on Earth and away from the rush of the earlier wedding.
They weren't really even doing anything but enjoying the sun, and James nearly looked like he was asleep if not for the fact that he would respond to Kari when she spoke.
But he sat up when Sying came skidding over, looking distressed. "Uncle James, I need your help."
"Welcome back," James said as he shifted to get to his feet. "What's going on?"
"I need you to look at my dad's nanites," Sying said. "He's not healing anymore — or, I don't know, not from big things, I guess. It's not really clear, but that's not — I just need you to look at them," he said in a rush, the words tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could keep up.
"I haven't really done much with nanites," James admitted. "But I can look at them."
"Well, you … you did some stuff when I was War," Sying said, and James didn't miss that Sying was touching his neck and moving constantly, even in little ways like drumming his fingers. He was still keyed up, and even saying his old Horseman name had him even more worked up.
"Trackers, mostly," James told him, watching him with a frown. "But I know that Tony worked on them before. If it can be upgraded, he can tell me how to get started."
"Thanks," Sying breathed out, dropping onto the lawn to sit next to them and still looking rather stressed.
James took a moment to text Tony first — since it really wasn't something he'd been playing with, and although there was in interest, theory was one thing, and popping the hood on Noh was another story entirely.
"Are you okay, Sying?" Kari asked softly, putting her hand on Sying's arm.
"Not really," Sying admitted, knowing there was no way he could hide it from either of them. "These guys… they cut open my dad and were going to do the same thing to me. I was tied down. Saw the tools. It was a near thing."
Kari let out a little noise and then simply pulled her brother-in-law into a long hug. "I'm not an X-Man, but I can go sock them in the nose if you want," she said, which got a laugh out of Sying as he hugged her right back.
James glanced up at Sying before he simply turned to head down to the lab and see what exactly was going on — especially since Tony had said he'd need some nanites to look at before he could even begin to come up with some solutions with James. "I'll be back," he said. "You … try to relax. Eat something."
"Yeah," Sying said with a little nod. "Yeah, I should do that."
"I got him," Kari promised, simply teleporting off with Sying so James could go find Noh.
Of course, once James had the blood sample, he went right to Stark's lab, where Tony was snapping his fingers in a back and forth impatient rhythm until James had the tiny tech set up to examine.
The two of them went right to it, both of them finding little problems with the tech that was breaking down from massive overuse from Noh's years of being on the team. They both had eyes in the microscope when Howard came in to see what was going on — and then paused on seeing the two of them muttering quietly to each other as they made notations.
"So… what did you two catch, and is it contagious?" Howard asked.
"If it is, you've probably already caught it," Tony said in a flat tone, still distracted at what he was looking at. "Haven't really done this much without him helping me along … and seeing that he doesn't know how to share…"
Howard frowned at that before he slid over to see what was going on. "Maybe I can…"
"Little too small to touch, Howie," James said. "Gonna need to have you actually reach out and try to see it … eyes, not hands."
Howard let out a frustrated noise. "Fine. If you had more of them together, I could play with them."
James picked his head up from the eyepiece. "Hey. You know how to do this. It's not my fault that you're going easy on yourself. And if I could give you more than what I've got, I would," James said. "Come on. Jana said you could do more with your mutation if you tried. You don't have to use your brain if it hurts too much."
Howard rolled his eyes and shoved James in the shoulder before he stepped up to the microscope, though with that kind of challenge, he wasn't about to ignore it, focusing not just on what he could see in front of him but on putting his powers through the microscope to see if he could cheat and look at the microscope and what was on it.
"Okay," he said slowly, "so there's not much that can be improved on the design. I mean, these things run on biological energy, so your own body powers them. So, as long as you're alive, they're working, right? Lifetime power supply…" He shook his head and stepped back. "I mean, they could be a little more efficient in the energy transfer, but at this point, they've been through enough upgrades that it'll just be a matter of a few percentage points. Not enough to make a difference in healing speed for more than a minute or two."
"It's keeping him alive," James pointed out.
Howard frowned at that. "Well, yeah, but I'm saying it's not going to heal any faster — not too much faster, anyway. That's what you're going for, right?"
"I dunno," James said, shaking his head. "If I can put in something with a short-term boost just to get him upright, maybe he could have some better input. Some of this tech isn't going to act the way we think it will."
"It's emotional," Tony told Howard with his eyebrows raised.
But Howard was frowning James' way. "What do you mean 'get him upright'?"
"I mean he's flat in the lab. Mom and Dad pulled him out of that weapons lab a little bit ago. They had him filet'ed." James let out a sigh. "And because it's emotional tech…" He tipped his head Tony's way. "If he's being negative, it's not going to cooperate."
Howard blinked at James for a moment and then went back to the microscope. "Okay. That's… that's not what I thought we were working on."
"What did you think we were working on?" James asked, crossing his arms for a moment.
"I figured it was a matter of healing, not life support," Howard said. "That's a totally different focus. I was looking at how to give him an edge on the team, not how to prolong his life."
James shook his head. "He was grown in an accelerated environment," James said. "He's going to age at a quicker rate too."
Howard nodded, not looking up from the microscope. "Yeah, okay. Right." He focused on the nanites with a deeper frown than before, really trying to 'see' everything that he could instead of looking at the healing aspect only. "Okay… okay… maybe… we can focus on giving them something else to draw from that isn't his body…"
And while he was digging, Tony and James were working out a few adjustments already and working out new specs for something much much smaller than they'd created before.
